Another day in democracy
It’s an interesting contrast that I’m following the deterioration of the political system in Bangkok while watching all the hopeful speeches from the DNC at the same time (literally, using two browser windows).
Protesters in Bangkok have occupied the Government House since early Tuesday in an effort to depose the current PM and his government. Police have tried several times and failed to dissipate the crowd or extract them from the building. The court has issued an order for them to leave the premise to no avail. The PM refuses to step down or use forces. Looks like the protesters have a military connection, as the army commander rejected the PM’s call for state of emergency. Elsewhere, the railway workers shut down the trains nation wide in support of the protest and several mobs violently storm the airports in Phuket, Krabi and Hat Yai, effectively stranding tons of tourists. Even Thai Airways, the country’s major airline, staff are threatening to join the strike. Nobody is listening to anybody.
And the kicker: these protester clowns are destroying state property and hurting reporters who are not on their side claims that their rally is a peaceful one and decrying police state when they’re rounded up. Writing this makes me sound like a right-wing conservative, but I can assure you that I’m usually a protester at heart, but these PAD guys don’t get my support.
People Alliance for Democracy. You have to excuse their English. Democracy is just a pretty, empty word use to validate an existence of a mob. They forgot this government was elected. See, no matter how corrupt, it’s still part of the game.
Kicker number two is that the protesters ultimately just want to knock down the current government but even when they succeed, an interim government will have to be appointed and another election will be held. And these other clowns who will have had to resign–they’ll get elected right back. Not because they’re good people, but because they’re the only people wicked enough to deal with, and win in, Thailand’s rotten political system.
I was never a fan of Samuk (the PM) and his cronies, but I’m not really convinced that he should resign after only half a year in office just because of mob rule. Democracy is majority rule and if you don’t agree with the majority, at least respect it. Who gives the mob a power to take over? No one but themselves.
This is precisely why this election year in the U.S. is so damn exciting: because I’ve disagreed with the current ruling administration for all of 8 years and now it’s finally finally time, again, to change things. And this time, it looks like it will happen.
Even with that gaffe of an election result in 2000, democracy in America works. Elsewhere is another story.